commonsense woo

Main menu

Uranus enters Taurus: Playing it safe risks everything

A phrase appears repeatedly throughout novelist Jeannette Winterson’s books: “What you risk reveals what you value.” She might have been preparing us for the shift of big-gun outer planet, Uranus, into Taurus, the sign of personal values, money and what we “own” (including our bodies and planet).

Everything we value as a culture–and everything you value personally–is subject to change now. The role and form of money is shifting (cash headed the way of compact discs) and micro-apartments and tiny dwellings might be about to displace traditional middle-class dreams of home ownership, reinventing the pleasurable Taurean relationship to stuff.

Other Taurus areas–nature, food, sensual touch, building homes, showing loyalty and staying put–are all due for a lasting shake-up. As always with Uranus, good and bad will come mixed together, and we won’t agree on which is which.

Uranus, the planet of sudden change, technology and individuality, takes about 84 years to circle the zodiac. Since the summer of 2010, Uranus has been in Aries (sign of self-determination and dominance), causing rapid and radical shifts in personal identity (e.g. how our online selves have all but taken over; gender options on Facebook) and rebellion against all forms of authority, for better and worse.

Aries is also the sign of war and the increased use of drones, cyber attacks and other forms of depersonalized, technological warfare shows the violent side of Uranus’ journey through the sign.

The Aries house or houses in your chart is where you’ve seen rapid-fire opportunities and challenges, and found yourself more impulsive and less predictable over the last 7-8 years. For those with Aries sun, moon or rising positions, there will have been an especially wacky year in there, when Uranus passed over that planet. (Same goes for the other cardinal signs: Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.)

On May 15th, Uranus moves into Taurus, shocking the very slow, steady and focused Taurus part of your chart into non-negotiable action. Thing is, Taurus hates being pushed around. So “Taurus part of your chart” is code for where you’re most stubborn–and where deep down you’d prefer things stayed how they are.

That stubbornness means that you will probably start off by digging your heels in. Something (associated with the house or houses where Taurus lives in your chart) you’ve taken for granted has gotten stale. An activity or relationship you used to enjoy turns tedious or stressful. You’ll likely want to ignore your sudden restlessness, frustration and boredom. Don’t (if you can help it). Uranus generates a lot of energy; trying to contain it is like storing lightning bolts under the bed–it’ll zap you when you least expect it. Also, Uranus just wants to free you up, to make your life more lively and keep you awake.

Befriend those lightning bolts by giving yourself plenty of new, interesting experiences in your Taurus house (or houses). That will give the wild energy somewhere to go, and open you to Uranian insights and your fun-loving inner rebel.

These next 7 years are also a important time to break free from other people’s values. For instance, maybe your friends center their lives around community–the give and take of peer-networks–and you’re realizing it’s not your thing. Or you’re racing to catch up professionally with your ex-college classmates and it’s sucking you dry. Let it go. Uranus is here to help you open up to alternatives: other priorities, new ways of feeling grounded or stable, pleasures that challenge and stimulate as well as soothe.

Taurus is slow to get going, but like a boulder rolling down hill, once in motion, it’s unstoppable. It may take a leap of faith to try that new thing, but the more you do it, the more competent and determined you’ll feel.

Tauruses, plus fixed sign suns (Leos, Scorps and Aquarii), gird yourselves for a total life makeover! Your goals and desires are going to change dramatically when Uranus hits the exact degree of your natal sun, although some of those changes may only be temporary. (Uranus is also responsible for the red-convertible-buying midlife crisis transit, around age 42–a set of radical changes whose appeal can fade once they become the new normal.)

The actual transit lasts a year, but even before it hits, you may feel a creeping restlessness. Do something creative and interesting with the Uranian tension–it will make you braver than usual–rather than trying to stomp it out of existence.

Sometimes the best Uranus change is a compromise, like taking on a more independent role at your safe job or letting your partnership breathe by taking a trip together with a group of friends.

Change is about to hit! Find out where it’s going to land and how to make sense of it in the bigger picture of your life in a 60-minute Depth reading.

Post navigation

3 comments

Sharon

Good morning, Luke Dani Blue,
Great article, thanks! Taurus is my rising sign. I think I’ve been getting zapped by lightning bolts for a couple of years now, as Uranus slowly moved its way toward Taurus. My “mask” has definitely changed, although it’s been really subtle so far. Not sure how my nervous Virgo Sun (5th house) is feeling about this. My off-beat Aquarius moon (10th house) is really fascinated by it all, though 🙂
I’ve recently discovered your website. It’s great! I’ve signed up for your newsletter. Looking forward to more. Take care!

Glad you’ve enjoyed the reads!! Zapped you may have been (even by Uranus) but not to any of the three positions you mention! The general rule for transits is that they don’t begin until the transiting planet is 2 degrees away from the degree of the natal planet–though some astrologers will begin to note the effect as far as 5 degrees away. Even if you have a zero degree Taurus rising (or Aquarius moon), you would have begun feeling the Uranus’ effects May 2017 at the earliest. So it’s something else!

What Uranus *has* probably been doing, is traveling through your 12th house–the land of dreams, imagination and what we hide from ourselves–which can be a truly weird period of oddball fantasies, private connections to unusual people and discovering new, more independent sides of yourself when you retreat from the outside world.

You might also look at the position of Neptune, which is moving through Pisces, in relation to your sun. Neptune moves pretty slowly but at some point between 2011-2026 it will have passed opposite your Sun. That is more of a “subtle” transit, that softens (or exaggerates, go figure) egocentricity, bringing out the Virgoan desire to be helpful, especially to people who are in some way invisible or especially vulnerable.

No way to know exactly what’s been going on without your full chart. One thing is certain, though: with that Aquarius moon and Taurus rising, you’re in for at least one or two years of dramatic changes between now and 2025!